


The One Where Arthur and Merlin Celebrate the Holidays

by n00blici0us



Series: The Gym AU [4]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Christmas, Fluff and Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-25
Updated: 2012-12-25
Packaged: 2017-11-22 10:03:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/608608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/n00blici0us/pseuds/n00blici0us
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Arthur and Merlin go to Uther's to celebrate the holidays. It doesn't go as planned.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The One Where Arthur and Merlin Celebrate the Holidays

It wasn’t that Merlin didn’t know that Arthur was rich. (They had been dating for about three months when Arthur asked if Merlin wanted to come join him in his family’s summer home in France. After Merlin had gaped at him for a while, goggling at the fact that yes, Arthur had said both “summer home” and “France” as if that were perfectly normal, Merlin, of course, had said yes. After all, why waste such a good opportunity to make out with his boyfriend while gorging himself on baguettes and cheese?) The thing was, Merlin never really realized that Arthur being rich while being a consultant and a yoga instructor (only on weekends) meant that he had to come from a rich family. And Arthur’s rich family came with an overbearing father, a slightly scary half-sister/step-sister hybrid and, apparently, a massive house.

“So,” Arthur said, waving his hand awkwardly at the massive house behind them. “This, um, this is my family home.”

“My god,” Merlin said. “That’s ridiculous. Are you putting me on? Is this some sort of trick? That house looks bigger than Professor X’s house.”

“Really, Merlin, X-men? I bring you to my ancestral home and all you can think about is X-men?”

“What?” Merlin defended himself. “They were hot.”

“They were old,” Arthur said, an expression of repulsion on his face. “You’re creeping on old guys?”

Merlin snuggled up to him, attempting to find a warm place in Arthur’s neck to bury his cold nose. “You’re an older guy,” he said.

“Older,” Arthur said, pushing Merlin’s cold nose away, “not old. Come on, we might as well go in. They’ll have seen us by now anyway.”

As if on cue, a dark-haired girl opened the front door and stood with her hands on her hips. “Arthur!” she yelled. “Stop snogging your boyfriend and get inside before Father has a fit. You know how he feels about affections in public.”

“Ugh,” Arthur groaned. “That’ll be my sister, Morgana. Don’t let her corner you into a room alone.” He grabbed Merlin’s hand and they started up the path to the front porch. “I’m so sorry about this,” Arthur said as they made their way. “Next year, we can totally just go to your Mum’s. It’s probably better than this."

He sounded so upset for a moment that Merlin had to push through the shock of pleasure running through him that came from Arthur acknowledging that there would be a next year to reassure him. "No, really," he said. "It's fine. I can't wait to meet your family."

Arthur brushed a quick kiss over Merlin's lips. "You're too sweet for saying so. I'm sure they'll disabuse you of that notion soon enough."

\--

It turned out that Arthur wasn't kidding about his family trying to disabuse him of the notion of being excited to meet them. In fact, as soon as Merlin had come inside and been introduced to Morgana, she had proceeded to continually harass him about his friends, his job, his living arrangements, and what his intentions were towards Arthur. "Erm," Merlin said, trying to sort out all of the questions and answer as many as possible. "I really like your brother," he said, peeking over at Arthur bashfully. Arthur was currently staring up at the giant Christmas tree in the corner of the living room. 

"Don't mind him," Morgana said, waving her hand dismissively. "He's trying to find out if there are any ornaments with embarrassing pictures of him on them."

"Are there?" Merlin asked. 

"Of course," Morgana answered, "but I've hidden them and I'm waiting for his guard to drop before I put them back on the tree."

Merlin stared for a second. "So you are kind of scary," he said, hopefully heading her off from doing anything untoward to him if he just acknowledged her power.

"Yeah," Morgana answered casually. "It's kind of my thing."

"Oh," Merlin said. "Okay," he said more carefully, carefully tucking his hands by his side in case she was the kind of rabid scary.

Morgana noticed and gave a little laugh. "Relax," she said. "I don't bite. Much," she ended with a little wink. 

And then Arthur had rescued him from any further conversation with a baleful glance at Morgana and a promise of showing Merlin the extensive grounds.

\--

If Morgana was trying to talk Merlin to death, Uther seemed to trying to freeze him out as much as possible. When Uther had joined the three of them for dinner (traditional, English, prepared by a cook, which Merlin wasn't used to), he had been nearly silent, save for the occasional grunt. One was even directed at Merlin when Arthur introduced him.

"Okay," Merlin said quietly, "It's a pleasure to meet you, sir."

Uther said nothing, just merely cast a glance at Merlin before returning to cutting his meat.

"So, Father, Merlin is a computer programmer. He writes apps for phones. He's doing really well. One of his apps just made the iTunes top 10 list."

Uther didn't say anything, but Morgana chimed in. "Oh my god, Merlin, that's great! Which app?"

"Oh," Merlin flushed, "it's a silly one."

"No it's not," Arthur defended. "It's the one with the little grey aliens that you have to transport to different worlds?"

Morgana turned to look at Merlin with a look of astonishment on her face. "Merlin, I love that one! I'm pretty sure I've played it through at least twice!"

"Thanks," Merlin mumbled, ducking his head to hide his blush. He could feel it spreading from his neck to his face. "there should be a new one coming out soon," he said after a moment.

Morgana squealed and clapped her hands together. "Please please, promise me that I'll be the first to try it? When it's sort of finished?"

Merlin smiled back at her, loving that he was able to put a smile on her face, to change her from the scary woman who greeted him at the door to this charming one. Arthur squeezed his hand under the table. He really was trying, Merlin knew, to get his father involved. The only problem was that Uther was completely against it. All he did was finish his dinner and said, "Good night."

Merlin sighed and looked at Arthur despairingly as Uther left. Arthur bit his lip and patted Merlin's arm. "Don't worry. It's not you. He, um, just doesn't like to talk while eating. Says it interferes with his digestion."

Merlin cracked a weak smile at Arthur. It really was sweet of him to try to make all of this better, even if he felt awful over Uther's obvious snubbing of him. 

That night when they went to bed, Arthur held Merlin extra tightly and whispered against his hair, "I love you, I love you, I love you," to take away the sting of his father's rejection. And Merlin didn't care about Uther at all, he only cared that Arthur cared for his father's approval so much, so he held Arthur back just as tightly, the two of them against the world.

**Author's Note:**

> Erm, somehow this ended up angstier than anticipated? Don't worry, they always end up happy! Next year they'll go to Hunith's.


End file.
